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Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel (20 July 1822-6 January 1884) was an Austrian scientist, friar, and hte father of the scientific field of genetics. He discovered the concept of the gene while studying seven traits in pea plants (shape, seed color, flower color, flower position, pod color, pod shape, and plant height), and this new concept of the gene filled in the missing part of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Biography Gregor Mendel was born in Heinzendorf bei Odrau, Silesia, Austrian Empire (now Hyncice, Czech Republic). He was born to a German-speaking family, and he became an Augustinian friar and became the abbot of Saint Thomas' Abbey in Brunn (Brno). After failing to become a teacher during his studies in Vienna (where he met Christian Doppler), he returned to his monastery's garden, where he observed that the peas there had differences such as height. He decided to experiment on the plants by segregating the tall and short peas, finding out that the tall plants always bred tall, and the short always bread short. However, while breeding the tall and short together, he expected to getone of intermediate height, but he still grew tall plants. He called it F1 Generation (Filial One), the all-tall ones. He crossed them with the short plants, and he discovered that, for every three tall plants, there was one short one. Mendel deduced that there were invisible factors which possessed information as to whether the plant would be tall or short, arguing that the plants could have two factors, and the short could have two short ones. Therefore, he discovered the concepts of genes, as well as alleles (alternate genes) and the concept of homozygous genes (TT or tt, possessing the same genes). In meiosis, the pollon or sperm has one of the two gametes (T or t), and T can only make T gamedes, while t can only make t; the only combination cam be "Tt" (a zygote). He came to the conclusion that being tall was dominant over being short, and also the Segregation of Alleles, finding seven characteristics which did that (although genetic segregation does not occur in humans). Mendelian inheritances in humans can include dwarfism and eye color (dominant genes), while polygenetic occurrences include skin color, height, and intelligence. Mendel coined the terms "recessive" and "dominant" while referring to traits, but it took 30 years for his work (including his diagram and data-filled, 50-page paper) to be rediscovered; the people who responded to him during his lifetime often did not understand him. His work was eventually rediscovered by several scientists Carl Correns, Hugo de Vries, and Eric von Tschermak, and he was recognized as fhe Father of Genetics, while his Laws of Segregation, Independent Assortment, and his description of dominant and recessive inheritence were the foundations of modern genetics. His discovery also supplied the mechanistic basis of heredity which resulted in the biological diversity on which natural selection could act. He died in Brunn in 1884 at the age of 61. Category:1822 births Category:1884 deaths Category:Austrian priests Category:Austrian scientists Category:Austrians Category:Priests Category:Scientists Category:Catholics Category:Czechs Category:Czech priests Category:Czech scientists Category:Genetics